This gets confusing, but Hillary and Clinton is not the theatrical appearances of Bill and Hillary (that tour ran into its own problems), but a supposed look at the marriage of Bill and Hillary. Except, to make things even more confusing, Bill and Hillary, as played by John Lithgow and Laurie Metcalf, aren’t really the Clintons, but they sorta are. I would try to clear this up more, but it doesn’t matter because no one cares.
The Broadway production of Hillary and Clinton will close one month early. Producer Scott Rudin on Monday announced that the Lucas Hnath play, which stars Laurie Metcalf and John Lithgow in the title roles, will have its final performance Sunday.
The early closing date for Hillary and Clinton is due to underwhelming ticket sales. The play, which cost $4.2 million to produce, began performances in March and drew mixed-to-positive reviews, but has struggled to fill seats, reaching only 36 percent of its gross potential in the last two weeks. Its cumulative box office stands at $4.7 million.
Directed by Joe Mantello, the limited engagement originally was scheduled through July 21. By the time of its final performance, the play will have had 37 previews and 77 regular performances at the John Golden Theater.
Hillary and Clinton takes place in a New Hampshire hotel room in 2008, imagining interactions between Hillary and Bill Clinton as she struggles with her campaign during the 2008 presidential election, with her chief opponent, Barack Obama, gaining steam. Hillary and Clinton is not based on the real Clintons, but instead characters with the same names in an alternate reality.
77 performances to 37 previews isn’t a lot.
Most people were confused by the concept and underwhelmed by the reality. The good news is that no one will have to try to figure this out any more because it’s going away.
So are the Clintons.
Tickets to the latest stop on Bill and Hillary Clinton’s speaking tour were going for as little as $20 on the secondary market as their 13-city adventure continued to struggle to find an audience.
The best seats in the house at Seattle’s WaMu Theater on Friday could be had for $829, a steep 54% drop from the $1,785 that the former first couple fetched when the tour was announced in early November.
That’s for the real Clintons, as opposed to the fake Clintons, and nobody seems to be interested in paying real money to see either the real Clintons or the fake Clintons.
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